The Portland daily press., 1887-07-23
ICE CREAM POISONING.
Mrs.; Cassie Hanson's Dangerous
SIckness-other Cases Reported.
What Portland Physicians Think
About the Matter.

What Portland Physicians Think
About the Matter.
On Wednesday Mrs. Fred Rundlett and
Mrs Cassie Hanson ate some ice cream pro-
cured at Perkins and were both sick in con
sequence. Mrs. Rundlett was attacked at
O'Clock Thursday morning. The attack was
accompanied by vomiting and while serious
did not prove to be dangerous. Mrs. Han
son was attacked shortly after Mrs. Rund-
lett, but in her case the process of digestion
had been completed. There was an acute
attack OF sickness accompanied by violent
retching. The patient vomited considerable
blood as the result of the retching Violent
spasms ensued, and during Thursday Mrs.
Hanson's life was despaired of. DR.. Way,
who had charge of the case, called consul
tation of physicians. By hypodermic injec-
tions of whiskey and constant care life was
preserved, but yesterday Mrs. Hanson
again grew worse. At late hour last night
she was reported as falling. Tie sickness
then had attacked the brain and the patient
was losing strength.
DIR. B. B. Foster had several cases of the
sickness. He said he should be 10th to ad-
vance an opinion as to the cause of the sick
ness. 0ne Of the patients had not felt very
well during the day, and had not eaten any
supper. During the evening she went into
Mr.. Perkins saloon, accompanied by lady
friend, and her little daughter. She ate
good deal of the cream, The little girl ate but
little and the lady friend sparingly, The lady
fri
easiness by the cream; the little girl vomited
considerably, but the lady, who ate great
deal, was very sick The doctor would have
considered the case one of cholera morbus if
the lady had not spoken Of the ice cream and
said she thought she was poisoned. A per-
son who had not felt well and then taken a
great deal of cold ice cream on an empty
stomach would naturally expect trouble.
DR.. Foster could not give an opinion as to
whether the milk might not have caused the
trouble or not, or whether the milk might
have contained the subtle poison tyrotoxicon.
BE had talked with several of the physicians
who had cases of sickness of parties who
had partaken of the ice cream, but they
were not prepared to express an opinion as
to the cause. The patients DIR. Foster had
and those these physicians had attended,
were either well or nearly so now.
DIR. Whidden had one case, that of per-
son who had taken ice cream soda. The pa
tient is well now. The symptoms were like
those of person who had taken such a
poison as tyrotoxicon, and not like cholera
morbus. In his case there was intense nau-
sion with little ability to vomit
DIR. III. p. Merrill was called to case, but
not at the beginning of the sickness, so that
he was not prepared to express an opinion.
DIR. Ii. ii. Hunt had not had any of the
cases but he thought, from what some of the
physicians had said who had cases, that the
tyrotoxicon theory was very plausible.
DIR. l. 7. Dana said that while he had not
had any cases of ice cream poisoning, in the
past few weeks series of cases of diseases
peculiar to the season had come under his
care. DR.. Dana thought that some of the
cases, the casue of which was attributed to
the ice cream, might have been only such
sickness as had come to his notice in the
cases which he had treated. There can be
no doubt, however, that a number OF cases
have resulted from the eating of ice cream
procured of Mr.. Perkins DR.. Dana thought
the probable cause Of the trouble was the
tyrotoxicon, developed in the milk or cream
used in the Preparation of the ice cream.
A numb9r of other physicians who had not
nau cases of the sickness under their care.
expressed themselves as of the opinion that
tfotoxicon poisoning was the probable
cause of the trouble.
In the city of Eastport last July sixty
people, who attended a church sociable,
were made seriously sick by eating ice cream.
AS in Portland, the people who had eaten of
the cream favored with vanilla were the
ones who felt the i'll effects, while those who
partook of the cream favored with other ex-
tracts escaped. The poisoning at Eastport
was, in consequence, by many attributed to
some impurity of the vanilla, but investiga-
ton failed to reveal any trace of anything in
the ingredients of the cream which would
account for the sickness. In the PASSPORT
cases the symptoms were similar to those of
the Portland patients, and the Eastport
physicians were all on duty during the
night.
Tyrotoxicon, the poison recently discoy-
cred, is supposed to be caused by certain
germs thrown off in the retrograde metamor-
phosis Of animal tissues. Experiments made
with the poison, as extracted from different
substances, gave rise to symptoms of sick
ness similar to that caused in the cases of
those who have partaken of poisonous ice
cream. These experiments were made by
Professor Vaughan of Michigan University,
who tried the effects of small quantities of
the poison both upon himself and upon some
of his pupils, who offered themselves as SUBJ
jects. cat was also given some of the
poison and exhibited symptoms of illness
similar to that caused upon the human sys
TEN. Professor Vaughan. from sample of
impure ice cream sent to him, succeeded in
extracting tyrotoxicon.